1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cost-effective, timely, and realizable means to reduce the possibility of a motor vehicle entering a freeway ramp in the wrong direction of travel—towards oncoming traffic!
2. Discussion of Background
Motor vehicles entering freeway ramps in the wrong direction of travel have long been a cause of injury or death. Worse, these incidents almost always involve multiple vehicle collisions owing to the domino effect. A statistically insignificant number of these incidents are caused by unanticipated, and often unavoidable, weather conditions such as fog, rain or snow with some accidents being attributed to elderly drivers. However, there is no doubt that the major and predominate cause of vehicle accidents are due too the use of alcohol or drugs. To date there have been numerous patents issued and suggestions submitted in an attempt to resolve the “Wrong Direction” problem by various means. The vast majority of these involve implementation of physical obstacles at freeway ramps that are configured with equipment to detect the direction of vehicle travel and when appropriate activate mechanical obstacles. Alternately attempts to stop vehicles, currently in use by some law enforcement agencies, is to destroy a vehicles electrical system with high intensity electromagnetic pulses (EMP) that, although causing irreparable damage, causes the vehicle to stop. Major obstacles in implementing any of these solutions are: their complexity, construction costs, maintenance, the large number of sites involved, and time. It is therefore unlikely that even a small fraction of these systems will be implemented—at least not in the near future.
Without reservation, time is the most important issue in the implementation of any system to reduce traffic fatalities as each year literally thousands of lives are lost. We need a timely and realizable solution now—not five years from now.
Therefore as exemplified, the most important considerations in developing a system to reduce the possibility of entering a freeway ramp in the wrong direction of travel are: the ability to be implemented in a timely cost-effective manner and simplicity of installation—all of which this present invention uniquely satisfies.